St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1887-11-06
Cassell's Magazine.

MEi light and shadow of
pES earth-rOoted ones?
by Would our friends
willingly climb to see
us, or would they consider us descend
ing the social scale by as many steps as
assembled from the street door to our
own! Would even our relatives-who
couldn't cut us, though they yearned so
to do with unSpeakable yearning-
would they shoot out the lip at us, and
roll up the eye, if we established our
LareS and PenateS under the same roof
with strange domestic gods?
These were but fraction of the ques
lions we asked ourselves before the flat,
as opposed to the cottage, carried the
day. Perhaps even then the cottage
might have had the majority of votes
for the cottage 0rne is a prominent
feature of our Boston suburban civil
ZatiOn-but for the years We had flat
ted'' in Paris. The memory of the un-
broken quiet, the complete convenience,
the perfect SecluSiOn, as of ones own
independent vine and fig tree, finally
decided us to try system entirely new
to us in our native land, and, indeed, of
but few years acquaintance even to our
country people, who have been taking
their ease in their own inns during all
the years we were both easy and uneasy
in foreign ones.
Flats are only growing into favor in
American cities, and their proportion to
other modes of living is about the same
as in England-that is, vastly less than
i'll Paris. As rule, Americans cling to
the old habit of Il bit of garden sauce,
no matter how small; to the Old manner
of the washing done at home, and dried
apOn 1.-THE estate: to the old manner of
"a cellar all to ones self, and ''wOQd
she'd" where knOckings and poundings
and SplittingS may not incense neigh
bOrs above or below.
We, however didn't care to pound
anything, our chief skill in that direc-
ton being upon nails not of iron. We
had had no personal interest in a
clothes line for years, and had forgotten
what cellar was like. We liked every
thing that could be done for us outside
done there, and without the cO-Opera-
ton of even our eyes and ears; and
therefore, finally, between pretty lit
tie cottage and fiat, both of the same
rent, we decided upon the latter, it hay
ing one more. room than the former.
We moved into our fiat in high glee.
''GOod luck to our fiat" sung Charlie,
as we unpacked casts and pictures that
last saw the light in WOburn square,
moved by our usual principle of taking
care of the beautiful first, in faith that
the useful will always take care of it
self.
By degrees our glee abated, as glee,
even when best founded, is sure to do.
1t abated, but did not leave us diScOn-
SOlate, for we knew in advance that
there are bitterS to every sweet, even to
that of an American fiat
Let us look about us and count our
cOnvenienceS. We have six nice rooms,
reasonably spacious, a rOomy bath and
closets and pantTieS in prOfuSiOn. We
are three flights from the street, with
two flats below, none above us, and but
three families served by the wide stair
way. On the rOof-a flight of stairs
above us-standS glass house, or at
least one so generously bewind0wed as
to seem so, one where, in inclement
weather, the linen may be dried
of any family who clings to the
ancient prejudice that washing is
better done at home than elsewhere.
Outside this glass house is a generous
space, defended by the machicalOted
wall, like a gothic castle, where, in fine
weather, the family linen may disport
itself in the sunshine. That American
families, as rule, even when adopting
the new fiat system, still cling to their
Mondays wash" is proved by the
countless roofs just beyond the range of
our ordinary vision, during the first few
days of every week, when roof after
roof seems tearing its thick white hair
in very delirium, or giving space to
white balletS more active than graceful.
Our drawing room has two bow Will
dOws, looking far away over hundreds
of roofs, in unbrOken perspective. to the
distant hills. 1t is pretty drawing
room, but, alas, how PhiliStine! The
chimney-Diece is cold, white marble ;cOld
the wall paper white and
gold, costing, our landlord i'm
pressively announces, s. the roll. In
the library is another world embracing
bow window; in the dining room an
other, all four facing different ways,
being enabled to do so from the position
of our fiat at an end of the block, and
affording evidence of the universal
American love of these SNOWY archi-
tectural features. Water, of course, is
laid on all over the building, and a chute
behind the kitchen range sends all ashes
and kitchen refuse flying into bin
three stories below, from whence the
ash man removes them every morning.
The chute is probably intended only for
kitchen refuse; nevertheless, 1t refuses
nothing offered to its amiable NAV, and
swallows ancient raiment, broken statu-
ary, decrepit chairs and tables, as smil-
ingly as ashes and potato skins. Once
the kitten went in, Overpersuaded by a
Juvenile curious impairment. The kit
ten came out again, having, by dint OF
claws and falSettO eXpOStulatiOnS, con-
{ WINGED some of us elders that the chute
of an American flat is not proper pass
age to the feline paradise
F. As in Paris, our coal-bins are down
stairS-three of them, one for each fiat
upon the groundsfi0or. In Paris. our
concierge, for consideration, brought
1 the days Goals up to us every morning.
Here in Cambridge the concierge is un
buyable, for the simple and cOgent rea-
son that there is no concierge! This
fact is to us one of the most curious and
announcement proofs of the high cost of
labor in this country, and the cOnSe-
quent habit of Americans to do things
for themselves, that in Europe are in
variably done by servants. Englishmen
travelling in this country are aglast at
being frequently compelled to black
their own boots; and Matthew Arnold
nearly starved to death because he
wanted to be waited upon at railroad
restaurants, instead of Snatching and
grabbing for himself la Americana.
So in these fiat houses of moderate
price, the proprietor never imagines
IL his business to provide a janitOr.
With speaking tube connected with
the front door, every fiat manages its own
social and practical business with the
street: and a cord or wire from every
fiat opens the closed general door with